If you were to look behind the curtain of the production of Creator's Playbook, there are several stages that would be very obvious. Research, writing, episode preparation, recording and scheduling, down to the editing, effects, and music selection. But one thing a lot of our listeners might not know is that we actually take the art of warming up before a recording very seriously.

As much research goes into our show, there is still a very real sense of improv. Because of that, we need to be in the state of mind to allow for that creative exchange to occur!

With the holidays coming up, we wanted to record a shorter episode today and show the process we use to get our creative juices flowing!

Here are several of the warm up games we've designed to get us in the creative mind-set:

"Key-Prompts" - One player give a key word or phrase, the other must develop a story around this concept using the key word as inspiration. That player then gives a key word to another player, who must use the inspiration to develop another part of the story. The only rule is that each player is adding to the same world or story, until a basic story comes together.

"Break and Tell" - A key word or phrase is given to start the prompt. The first player must begin telling a story until they trip over their own words or pause. The next player must immediately continue telling the story from where the last player left off. The story is traded back and forth if there are only two players, or in a direction if there are more.

"Pass Backs" - A player gives a basic phrase as a prompt. Player two takes the prompt and develops the idea a little further, typically adding a twist or a concept. Player one then begins to describe a scene from a would-be story that illustrates the prompt as a fleshed out idea. This scene it stand alone, and the next play is a new scene for a new would-be story.

"Not My McGuffin" - A player gives the name to an unknown item. Player two takes the name and describes what the item is, how it is used, and why it is essential to the plot of the story the item appears in.

Try these games out and let us know what we think by tagging Creator's Playbook on social media!

Twitter: @CreatorsPBPod
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Episode Hashtag: #cppodcast084
Website: http://www.creatorsplaybook.com/